Ellis
by DarkSwanApprentice
Summary: Season 2, Daisy is still Skye. The team investigates a 911 call & finds a boy orphaned & scared. Who he follows around is a surprise to everyone. Philinda, lots of Mama May. I messed with the timeline a little to benefit the story. Also, there is Skyeward because I will never let that beartbreak go
1. One

When a 911 call was made that met the criteria for suspected Hydra involvement, they moved in. A man said men in black with assault rifles were breaking into his home. They were organized, he thought maybe they were S.H.I.E.L.D., since the world thought of them as a terrorist organization now.

It was Hydra, they broke into this man's home. The reason was unknown, but still the team arrived on scene before first responders could. Hydra fled the scene, apparently having got what they wanted.

It was never easy to find a body left behind, an innocent bystander in all of this. What was worse is he was recognized. Coulson knew him, he was an agent, and part of the T.A.H.I.T.I. program. He was the only one spared when another former agent went on a killing spree in an attempt to decipher the alien writing they all had encoded in their DNA.

"Hydra must have wanted him for questioning. But why did they kill him?" Skye said.

"Maybe he refused to crack." May answered her. She carefully observed the scene. The man had two bullets, shot point blank in the chest.

Suddenly, a small cry broke the silence, making everyone perk up. May signaled for everyone to follow her as she made her way up the stairs toward the sound.

If they hadn't heard the sound again they might have missed where he was hiding.

The home was older, with large vents throughout it, including one in the hallway. May held a hand up to make sure everyone stayed where they were. Skye stepped forward and bent down to see inside the vent.

What was inside broke her heart. A small boy, maybe two years old, was crouched inside, shaking and crying, but trying to keep quiet.

"It's okay, all clear." Skye said, still in shock and not taking her eyes off the child.

"Hey," She said to him, "it's okay, no one's going to hurt you now." She slowly began to take off the vent cover.

"Want daddy." The boy whimpered and refused to come out.

Skye swallowed a lump in her throat. He must have heard everything, the yelling, the gunshots.

"It's going to be okay, we want to take you somewhere nice and safe." Skye held a hand out.

"Want daddy!" He cried again and became even more upset.

"Go cover the body, he doesn't need to see that." May turned and told two of the agents standing by her. They nodded sadly and went downstairs to find something to cover the man with.

"I'm sorry, your- " Skye began but May cut her off with a hand on her shoulder and a shake of her head.

"Hey, what's your name?" May bent down to talk to the boy.

"Ellis." He sniffed. His eyes were now locked on May.

"Ellis, why don't you come out? We'll go to your room, we can pack you a bag and you can come see my house. How does that sound?" May smiled.

Skye had never seen her S.O. this kind and comforting. But she wasn't sure they had time for that.

"May, the cops will be here any second." She nudged.

"Then help me." May mumbled back. "Ellis, this is Skye. She she can help you."

The boy looked between the two women and hesitated for another minute before crawling out. Skye checked a nearby hall closet and found a bag suitable before they ran down the hall to find his room.

The boy asked them to bring his blanket and several of his toys, Skye stuffed his clothes into the bag as well and they cleared the scene. She carried the bag while May clutched Ellis to her chest, protecting him from possibly seeing his father dead or anything else that might scare him.

He was now in their custody, sirens could be heard just around the block while they ran back to the quinjet so the authorities could asses the scene and properly process the dead man.

Back at the base, everyone was surprised by their new guest. Coulson said they were looking for any living relatives but they believed Hydra went after the man because he was a former agent and because they had intel on the T.A.H.I.T.I. program somehow. Apparently they didn't know about the boy or they didn't care. Either way, he was safe with them.

In the meantime, May tried to hand him off to Simmons. She was by no means maternal, and she was off on missions frequently while Simmons was here all the time. But the boy wouldn't have it. He cried for her when he was lead away and she couldn't stand it. Simmons let go of his hand and he ran back to May, wrapping his arms around her legs.

May sighed, and decided to indulge him until they found his family. A few days couldn't hurt.

But it turned out the boy was very attached to her, which was very surprising considering her demeanor. Still, she accepted it, even if she wondered why he would want to be around her. She wasn't comforting or soothing.

The days turned into a couple of weeks, and Ellis went everywhere with her. Striding down the hallway at her side, holding two of her fingers in his tiny hand, sitting in her lap while she gathered intel and briefed others on missions, watching while she sparred. She removed herself from field work temporarily, nothing too pressing was happening and he cried when he was away from her. She felt awful for him, his father had just been murdered in front of him.

Everyone her knew her reputation, but no one dared question her. She sent glares at anyone who stared at the two of them. Almost everyone here was too intimidated by her to ask at all about her fondness of the boy, but those who were closest to her understood without the need to ask. She wanted to be a mother, a long time ago, before Bahrain destroyed her. But it didn't take away her nurturing side. She didn't show it often, but this was a two year old child with no one else.

Coulson in particular knew this side of her. He didn't ask questions, didn't stare, he accepted her new companion without blinking an eye.

Two and a half weeks after they brought Ellis in, their search for living family was over. Coulson steadied himself to break the news to May and set off to find her.

She was walking down the hall to her room, Ellis was asleep and slumped over her chest. She was carrying him to her bed so he could nap properly instead of in her lap while she worked.

"May." Coulson said in greeting.

"Coulson." She acknowledged without stopping.

"I have some news on the search for his family. Can we go to my office?" Coulson tried to keep up with her.

Still walking, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. They could talk in her room.

"Right." He nodded and continued to walk with her.

Upon arriving, he punched in the code to her room and opened the door for her. Then, he walked to her bed and pulled the blanket back.

"Thank you." She said before carefully laying the baby boy down and covering him up. He turned over once and sighed in his sleep before stilling again.

"So what did you find?" May braced herself. As sweet as Ellis was, she knew the best thing for him was to live with a living relative under the careful watch of S.H.I.E.L.D.

"Nothing." Coulson said bluntly.

"Excuse me?" May crossed her arms.

"Agent Barker had no living relatives of his own, even before we had to wipe his memory and change his identity. The mother is dead, died when Ellis was born, and she was a product of the foster system. I even had Skye try to hack into every lead we thought we had, but there's no one."

May covered her mouth. This little boy was alone in the world now, he had no family, his parents were dead.

"We can't hand him over to an orphanage, this organization doesn't exist right now. And-"

"We are not dropping him on a random doorstep!" May stepped toward him.

He put his hands up. "I wasn't going to suggest that, but you and Skye had the same reaction."

May backed down and sat on a couch. Coulson sat next to her.

"I was going to say that we're his best option. He isn't safe on his own, Hydra could be after him too. Maybe we just chased them away."

"We'll keep him safe." May stared at the toddler sleeping in her bed.


	2. Chapter 2

As the weeks went on, Ellis became more comfortable and adjusted better. He still asked about his daddy, and one day May had to break down and tell him that his father couldn't see him anymore. She didn't tell him the truth, not yet, he was only 2, but it was important that he understood that he was safe but he wouldn't see his father again. He cried, and she held him. It was hard for a child this age to comprehend but May couldn't keep lying to him and seeing him upset over and over.

He began to come out of his shell. First with Skye, the first person he saw after Hydra attacked. He associated her and May with safety and comfort. For a while, she was the only other person he would go with. Then he let Coulson pick him up. His nerdy dad side was overly happy about being one of the three people the kid would associate with. May gave one of her rare smiles.

Slowly but surely, he became comfortable with those who were around May frequently, those that he could see were close with her. He became a favorite around the base, everyone trying to make him happy after word spread about why he was here.

Coulson couldn't figure out what to do with him. With them, he was safe, but he also wasn't. He was surrounded by some of the best agents in the world, trained to protect to the death if necessary. But they also had a lot of enemies, and Ellis couldn't just stay under ground his entire life.

It was early one night, Ellis would have already gone to bed and May would still be awake in her room. So Coulson made his way there to have a talk with her about what to do.

Her door was slightly open when he arrived. At first he felt a little scared, old memories of betrayal within his own team festering, fear that there was another wolf in the herd. But he knew their base was completely safe. Still, it wasn't like her to leave her door open.

When he walked in he smiled. Ellis was in bed like he thought, but May was asleep next to the boy. This wasn't unusual, they hadn't had time to get him his own bed yet, so May allowed him to sleep with her. She said it had been helping him deal with what happened.

Coulson thought it was beyond adorable. May was on her side and Ellis was facing her, curled into her chest while one of her hands rested on his back.

Knowing she would hate him for it later, he snapped a picture. When they found somewhere for him to go, she would treasure it. He could see how attached she had become to him, even if she wouldn't admit it to anybody. Whenever it was brought up, she gave the person a look that sent them scurrying back to whatever they were doing. But not him, when he mentioned it she looked at him only with vague irritability.

He remembered today, May was sparring with Skye while Ellis watched from Simmons' lap. Eventually he got up and asked to participate.

"I try, May!" He yelled excitedly.

She smiled down at him.

"Okay, watch me first."

May slowed her moves down so he could see, and Skye pretended to go down when she was kicked in slow motion.

"You can do it, Ellis. Come at me." Skye encouraged the boy.

"Ahh!" Ellis ran forward and kicked Skye in the knee.

"I'm down!" Skye toppled over, much to the delight of the toddler.

Everyone cheered him on, and for the rest of the time Ellis would take a turn every so often. Skye told him he would be a great agent one day.

Coming back to the present, Phil took a deep breath and brushed some hair out of May's face.

"May." He said hoarsely, trying not to wake the sleeping boy.

She woke up and turned to look at him, the tips of his fingers still on her forehead.

"What are you doing here?" She mumbled sleepily.

"You left your door open. And we need to talk." Coulson said.

May looked back at Ellis.

"Okay, give me a minute." She carefully extracted herself from the bed. Ellis began to stir and groan.

"It's okay, Ellis. I'm going to talk to Phil, go back to sleep." May tucked him in and rubbed his back for a second. Then she followed Phil out to the hallway, leaving the door cracked in case the little boy got up.

"What's going on? Why can't this wait until morning?" May grumbled.

"Because I didn't want anyone interrupting us." Coulson answered. "It's about Ellis."

"What about him?" He had her attention now.

"He can't stay here forever." Coulson simply said.

May sighed. "He doesn't have anywhere else to go."

"May, it's not safe. What happens when we all need to go on mission?" Coulson asked.

"Then he can stay here with whoever we leave behind. We never leave the base unoccupied."

"And what if the base becomes unsafe? Or we do need everyone to leave?"

"I'll figure it out." May said through clenched teeth.

"Melinda," Coulson stepped into her personal space, "you're not his mother."

Memories came back to May, about Phil and Skye, and her reminding him that he's not her father.

"You're right, he has no mother. He has no one." May pointed out. "We can't just throw him out into the world to fend for himself. He's alone because of us, because Hydra wanted to get to us."

"That's not your fault, or anyone's. But he deserves the chance at a normal life, a safe life."

"You think he's not safe with me?" May challenged him.

"I didn't say that. But this isn't the life for a child to grow up in."

"He's happy, he's safe. I would never let anything happen to him. I don't want to risk sending him out alone. Do you even have anything in mind for him?"

Coulson couldn't answer. The truth was he didn't, he was hoping they could think of a solution together.

"He's staying with me. If it comes down to it he can stay with my mother, he'll be just as safe there as he would anywhere else."

Coulson simply nodded and May went back into her room and closed the door. He went back to his office and she took a deep breath, staring around. A few toys were scattered from when he was playing earlier. Her laundry bag was full of her clothes and his, needing to be washed. This wasn't what she had in mind when she decided years ago she wanted to be a mother, a hasty living situation on a top secret base with a child who was now orphaned and attached himself to her.

She wasn't his mother, but he had no one left in the world and she would be damned if she let him go out on his own when she was capable of taking care of him. Skye was living proof of how having no family and no real home can effect you.

She carefully climbed into her bed and wasn't even settled in yet when Ellis moved over to her. This always happened. She would settle him down on one side of the bed, then when she decided it was time for her to sleep he would move over to her. Tonight she hadn't expected to fall asleep early, she had worked hard today and he was exceptionally fussy, so she laid with him to get him to fall asleep and she had accidentally done the same.

By the time he had been there for a few months, everyone accepted the situation. In the foreseeable future, Ellis was in May's care. She called her mother to explain and ask that he be taken care of if the situation called for it. Her mother was surprised, she hadn't expected her daughter to take on or have any children, but she agreed to keep him safe if the situation arose.

Sooner than expected, it happened. A lot had happened over the last few months, Hydra and S.H.I.E.L.D. were racing to be the first to find what the alien writing meant. Coulson's theory was it was a city, Skye thought it was a map. The biggest curveball was Skye's father coming into the picture, although she hadn't met him herself. She didn't want to, she found the bodies he left behind, and when he almost killed Tripp that was where she drew the line indefinitely. He was a murderer, and it devastated her.

But now they found a match to the three dimensional model of the writing built by one of the T.A.H.I.T.I. patients, in Puerto Rico. It was now a race to see who got there first, and May had to leave the base. Almost everyone did, and they still had reason to believe Ellis could be in danger so he was safely hidden away at her mother's house and the agents who weren't going to San Juan would be there for protection.

"May!" Ellis screamed from her mother's arms.

May swallowed a lump and turned around. This was the first time she was leaving him since she met him.

"I'll be back to get you as soon as I can. This is my mommy, you'll like her." May turned around and spoke to Ellis.

"Don't go." He pouted.

"I have to. It's my job, but I promise I'll come back." May hugged the boy one more time.

"Promise?" He plead.

She could see the look in his eyes, he was terrified she wouldn't come back like his father didn't.

"Yes. Promise you'll be good?" May smiled.

Ellis nodded. She set him down and he walked over to dig in his bag she brought for him.

"He seems to have taken well to you." Lian May commented.

"Don't even say it, mom." The younger May warned. "I'll contact you when I'm headed back. Thank you again."

"A pleasure to take care of my grandchild." Lian said to her daughter's retreating back.

May stopped for a second, rolled her eyes, and kept walking. She nodded at the agents staying before getting in the car to return to the plane.

"He'll be okay." Skye said from the passenger seat.

"I know, he's just scared I won't come back for him." May said.

"Understandable." Skye knew where he was coming from, until now she had no family to speak of but she had been terrified many times that someone she was close to wouldn't come back alive.

May and Skye had no intention of being near any part of the mission. Skye's father made it clear he wanted her to go into the city, so Coulson and May kept her away. That's when things took a turn for the worst.

Whitehall invaded their communications, he had managed to use the tracker Coulson placed on Raina and would be sending someone aboard to retrieve her. May argued back, and that's when Whitehall played his hand.

"See I thought you might be resistant. That's why I took an insurance policy out. Your agents put up a good fight, and your little friend wasn't too eager to see me."

May's heart plummeted. She was completely stunned into silence. Skye grabbed her arm to steady her.

"I'll be sending my representative shortly." Whitehall finished before cutting out.

Everything was a blur to May, until Ward made it clear he was taking Skye too.

"The hell she is!" She raised a gun and stood in front of Skye. She wasn't about to have another person she cared about in the crosshairs.

"May, I can handle myself." Skye assured the woman.

"Skye, you cant trust him." May didn't take her eyes off the traitor in front of her.

"Yes you can." Ward smugly said.

"Don't talk to her!" May grumbled.

In the end, Skye went, along with Raina. May was pissed off, and she made it clear. After avoiding being shot out of the Skye, she stomped around the plane barking orders. The Koenigs were too scared to resist, Tripp tried to reason with her, Hunter just avoided eye contact.

When they landed, May told Coulson what happened and he promised her they would get both Skye and Ellis back and Hydra would pay.


	3. Chapter 3

"Five people and my mother were there protecting Ellis." May stated, following Coulson into the bus.

"I know. Go." He said.

"What?" May was going to send a team to assess, even though she wanted to go herself.

"Go, see if there are any survirors. This is your mom, Melinda." Coulson was sincere.

"We'll get Ellis back, I promise. Whitehall is going to pay." Coulson promised with determination in his voice.

May opened her mouth to say something else but just nodded her thanks. She was dropped back off at the base with another agent, where they immediately jumped into a quintet to take off to Lian May's home.

Upon landing, she could see the front door was broken. She didn't even finish proper landing procedure before she ran inside.

The sight was unnerving, the five agents left here were scattered throughout the house, three still alive, barely. There were dead Hydra agents as well. She found her mother upstairs in her bedroom. She had been the last line of defense for Ellis. Her gun was still next to her. To May's relief, she was breathing.

"Mom?" She nudged the older woman.

Lian stirred, groaning.

"I've called for help, they should be here soon." May muttered.

"Where is Ellis?" Lian mumbled.

May sighed. "Hydra has him. Phil's on top of it."

"You should be the one going after him."

"You need me here. I trust him, I trust them all to get him out."

"Ellis needs you. It's your job."

"I'm not his mother." May said sadly.

"You're all he has, don't argue with me." Lian said a little more aggressively.

"Even when you've been shot you scold me." May smiled, at least her mother was okay enough to be defiant.

"Go back to your team."

"I'm staying until you get settled into the hospital."

That was when the paramedics arrived and Lian didn't get another chance to argue. May told the agent who arrived with her to wait and she would be back within an hour. She rode in the ambulance with her mother and talked to her doctor, making sure her number was down as the emergency contact. Her mother made one more comment about May's bond with Ellis before she hailed a cab to take her back to her mother's house.

She was just about to take off when she got a call. It was Bobbi. They had Ellis, scared but unharmed, but the temple in the alien city had collapsed with Coulson, Tripp, Mack, Skye, and Raina still underground. May didn't think she'd ever flown so fast.

When she made it to San Juan, she was in a frenzy. Too many people she cared about were endangered and she wanted to see all of them, see with her own eyes that they were now safe. She wanted to hug them all and feel them alive in her arms. She ran to the bus after hastily landing. The first person to find her was Phil, in the cargo hold. She breathed a sigh of relief and rushed the last few steps to hug him. He was bloody, bruised, but alive.

He went over the short version of everything with her. Skye had been abducted by Ward to be taken to her father, who had beaten the crap out of Phil. Phil shot and killed Whitehall, who was about to kill Cal, who then felt like his vengeance had been stolen from him by Phil. Cal had set out years ago to murder Whitehall for tearing Skye away and murdering her mother. Skye ended up in the city trying to find Raina and get the obselisk back, Phil followed her down. Tripp was already down there, trying to disable the explosives so as not to kill Slye and Phil. Mack had been corrupted by the city itself, but whatever it was had gone away.

May found out Tripp had been turned to stone and she was devastated. He was her friend, the center of positivity around the base with his upbeat attitude. But the gas released by the obelisk hadn't turned Skye to stone. Whatever quake had been caused, it had spared her. She would be in quarantine when they got back to the base but she was unharmed. No one had found Raina's body yet.

"Where's Ellis?!" May demanded, gripping Phil's arm.

"He's fine, he's with Bobbi. She and Hunter managed to get him out safely. They're upstairs." He placed his hands at her elbows. "All he wants is you."

He pulled her in for one more hug before she rushed up the steps to the lounge in the plane. She saw him and immediately stopped in her tracks, taking a deep breath. He was sitting on the couch watching something on s tablet. When Bobbi noticed her standing there, she nudged Ellis and pointed.

"May!" He threw the tablet to the side and ran to hug her.

May crouched down and opened her arms to hold him. She kneeled on the floor and held him closely, cupping the back of his head and crying.

"You're okay." She said.

"I miss you." He said into her hair.

"I missed you too. I'm sorry." She replied. He pulled away and looked at her.

"Your mommy hurt." He said sadly.

"She's okay. Did they hurt you, Ellis?" She began checking him for any injuries. Whitehall was dead, there was nothing else she could do to him but those under his command would pay dearly.

Ellis shook his head.

"Good. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have left you." She hugged him again.

"You got to stop bad guys." Ellis grinned. He was resilient.

"But I also need to keep you safe. I promised."

"I love you, May." He smiled and played with her hair.

May couldn't help but smile back and felt a few more tears roll down.

"I love you, too." She wiped some dirt off his cheek.

Back at the base, she bathed the little boy and tucked him in for the night. He had been through too much, he needed a good night of sleep. Bobbi sat with him so she could go visit Skye in quarantine.

"How are you?" May asked the girl. She looked devastated, ill even.

"I've been better." Skye answered.

May frowned. If it weren't for the glass between them, she would hug Skye. The longer they trained together, the more May felt like Skye was a daughter to her. The poor girl didn't have a mother, or anyone really. Everyone she loved was here in this base, and she had only found them a couple of years ago. Before that, she was completely on her own.

"It'll be okay. You'll be out of here sooner than you think. I'll stop by a few times a day, just let me know if you want me to bring anything." May put a hand up to the glass. Skye lifted her hand weakly and placed it on the other side for a few seconds.

"How is Ellis? This is a lot for a two year old to cope with, after losing his father that way." Skye was worried about the boy.

"He's okay. He's sleeping, Bobbi is watching him." May answered.

"I'm sorry, all this happened because of Ward and my insane father." Skye turned away.

"Hey," May stood closer to the glass, Skye turned and looked right at her, "you didn't ask for any of this, it's not your fault."

Skye looked at the ground and that was when Hunter ran in.

"May! Ellis is awake, I think he's having night terrors, he won't have anything to do with Bobbi." He spat out.

"Go!" Skye said when May hesitated.

May immediately took off. The closer she got to her room, she louder the familiar crying became.

"It's okay, Hunter went to find May." Bobbi was trying to soothe him.

May burst in the door and Ellis immediately ran to her.

"Mommy." He gripped her pant leg and buried his face in the side of her thigh. May was stunned into silence and reached down to pick him up. Bobbi and Hunter took mercy on her and silently excused themselves.

May sat on the bed and rubbed Ellis' back trying to soothe him.

"Mommy, scary dream." Ellis now had her shirt in his fist.

"Ellis, I'm n-" May started but he began sobbing again and she didn't have the heart to correct him. He had lost everything, never even known his real mother. She would never let him forget his real family, but she couldn't bring herself to ask him not to call her mommy.

Then and there she made a decision. She would take care of him, as long as he needed it, and no matter what happened. Until Hydra was eliminated, he would stay on the base. It was clear they wanted him, though she didn't know why. His father was dead, and he was a two year old boy with no intel.

The next morning she told Coulson her decision. Ellis was eating breakfast with Simmons. He was back to having trouble when May wasn't around so she stayed within his sight.

"I can't say I'm surprised." Coulson watched the boy. He was surprisingly talkative and a good conversationalist for his age. "And I wouldn't dare stop you."

"You're okay with this?" May raised her eyebrows.

"He needs you. And I can't think of anyone in the world who would be better for this than you." He leaned into her personal space.

May smiled up at him, aware of how close he was standing. Before they could say another word to each other, she leaned in and rested her head on his chest, watching the boy. Coulson reached hand up and ran it up and down her back.

"He keeps calling me mommy, and I can't bring myself to stop him." May admitted.

"Don't you hate when your mother's right?" She could practically hear his smirk.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the closeness of him, hearing his heart beating beneath her ear, telling her he was alive and safe. Everything she held dear was close and safe.


	4. Chapter 4

It felt like as soon as Skye was out of quarantine and things were calming down, Lady Sif arrived with no memory and things were crazy again. May had no choice, she was a familiar face and she had to go. She managed to pry Ellis off her and left him with Jemma, who he liked enough to calm down.

Sif kept repeating a Kree word for keys, saying she had no memeory but needed to find whatever it was. They tried to jog her memory by talking about who she was and what kind of life he led, but nothing worked.

It wasn't long until they found the man. Skye and Bobbi followed up a possible lead which led them right to him. They walked in on him using nitrogen at a hospital to keep his skin pink. Without consideration, he picked a fight with Bobbi and got away.

Back on the bus, they checked into any key reference they could find. For a while they came up short, until May found a city called Chavez, which translated to keys in English. It was also a dig site where Whitehall found the original obelisk back in the 1940s.

But Skye had an odd request.

"Director, I'd like to sit this one out." She said to Coulson.

He and May both wondered why, and she swore twice that she was just rattled from her last run in with the Kree.

"I can entertain Ellis. Jemma needs to focus on her work and she needs to be ready in case one of you gets hurt."

May could tell she was lying, but she let it go for now. The girl was still shaken up by what happened in Puerto Rico, a break might not be bad for her.

"Okay, we'll drop you back at the base and handle this." Coulson said.

May gave Skye a knowing look, which the girl tried to turn away from. But she could still feel the older woman's eyes on her when she walked away.

They apprehended the Kree while he was trying to drag out a trunk from a cave. He tried to explain himself but they didn't hesitate this time, he was captured and they had the trunk in their possession.

May walked the Kree back into the base, he kept swearing he was there to help them but she refused to believe it. They led him into the lounge so everyone could talk with him.

"Mommy!" A familiar voice sounded. Ellis bounded into the room and attached himself to May.

She looked up at Skye, not wanting him in the same room as an Asgardian and a potentially dangerous alien.

"Sorry, he saw you and I couldn't catch him." Skye cringed a little.

Regardless, May let him stay. She didn't want to have him screaming right now and frankly Skye probably needed to be here.

The Kree tried to convince them to give him his weapon back to restore Sif's memory, but they refused. He took it anyway and touched it to her before dropping it with his hands up. She remembered who she was and why she was here, and the Kree began to explain why he had come to Earth.

"Someone in your world has transformed, I'm here to take them." He said.

The obelisk had triggered some sort of old signal. Thousands of years ago, the Kree rained down and tried to transform humans into weapons that were activated by the mist from the crystals. Coulson explained that Raina was down there and had been transformed, and they all discussed how to find her. The Kree wanted to either take her with him or put her down, she was dangerous, an abomination as he said. He also said changes may not be on the outside, but inside was a whole different story.

The base began to shake, violently. Ellis was scared and May clutched him to her leg.

"What's happening?" Sif said.

Coulson looked at Skye. "Skye was down there too, when the mist happened."

"Skye, you want to talk to us." May was concerned.

Coulson slowly approached the young girl. "Skye, what's doing this?"

"I am." She gasped out.

Sif made a grab for her but Skye jerked away.

"No!" She said before the windows behind her shattered.

May turned so Ellis was out of the line of fire and Coulson covered them both. Within a second afterward, they had both drawn a gun and were standing in front of Skye. Ellis began to cry and clutched May's leg, not daring to peek out.

"Give her to me, I will take her to Asgard and keep this world safe." Sif demanded.

"She's not going anywhere." May said through gritted teeth.

"She's an abomination and she needs to be put down!" The Kree yelled.

"Well that sounds a lot like killing to me!" Fitz had appeared.

May looked at Coulson and nodded before grabbing Skye and rubbing. Coulson passed Ellis to Fitz and said to take him to Jemma and get bambino.

May had to trust that her boy would be safe and she would have to protect Skye. She rushed the girl to the basement cell they kept Ward in and turned on the noise canceling barrier.

"Hey, focus on me, just me." She kneeled next to Skye on the bed. "We can do this, you can do this!"

"I can't make it stop!" Skye sobbed.

"You will control your emotions!" May encouraged the girl.

"Everyone is at risk." Skye cried out.

May got up and stood in front of Skye.

"Control, just like we practiced!"

That was when Sif drove her sword through tbe barrier. May turned around and readied herself to go toe to toe with her.

"May, she'll get through." Skye said.

"Ignore it." May told her.

Within seconds, the barrier was broken and Sif marched in. Before anyone could even think, Skye took May's icer and turned it on herself.

For a moment, May couldn't breathe. She didn't realize it wasn't a real bullet. Then she realized the girl in front of her was just unconscious.

"Skye." She breathed before stepped forward. She placed a hand on the girl's arm and could feel her breathing.

"She harmed herself." Sif said in astonishment.

"Even though she knew it meant giving up her freedom." Coulson said as he walked in. "Leave her with us, she can get it under control."

May breathed deeply and pushed some hair out of Skye's face. It had been a long time since she had been that terrified.

While Coulson and Bobbi took the Kree and Sif to go home, May stayed behind. They moved Skye to her room and she sat in a chair next to her to wait for her to wake up. Ellis was supposed to nap in her bed but he insisted on staying up with her. He ended up falling asleep in her lap anyway.

She began to stir and opened her eyes, waking up to find May on her phone next to her with Ellis passed out.

"Is everyone okay?" She immediately asked.

"No one was hurt, nothing seriously damaged." May answered, putting her phone away. "You could have told us, we would have helped you."

"I'm sorry, Fitz was trying to help me. I just didn't know what was wrong with me." Skye sat up, clutching her aching head

"There's nothing wrong with you, you're just a little different." May assured her.

"Fitz said the same thing."

"Great minds think alike."

Skye rolled her eyes.

"You know we have to put you on the index." May said.

"I know. I'm okay with it." Skye shrugged.

"We love you, Skye." May reached a hand out and put it on the girl's shoulder.

The next day, her index file was complete. But she still needed a psych evaluation. Coulson said they needed someone they could trust, and May knew exactly who he was getting at.

"I know who I'd call, if it weren't a thing." Coulson said.

"Andrew? It's not a thing." May insisted.

And just like that, she was on an errand to retrieve her ex-husband. She didn't find this very enjoyable, and she didn't want to hear what he would have to say when he saw Ellis, but she needed to do this for Skye.

He made his comments, asked why she didn't contact him after SHIELD fell, but also revealed that he called her mother anyway. Still, he agreed to help. May was grateful, she wasn't sure how well she would handle something else going wrong.

She went back to the base to await his arrival, finding out that Skye had isolated herself to the cage on the bus. It upset her, but she didn't push the issue.

As soon as Andrew arrived, she became uneasy. She escaped back to the bus to tell Skye that she would need a psychologist, which the girl fought her on. She argued that she had been through enough of these.

"You'll like this one." May simply stated.

"Yeah, how do you know that?" Skye rolled her eyes.

"Because I was married to him." May answered.

Just like that, Skye was intrigued.

May left to find Ellis whole Andrew did his first session. When they were done, he found her in the kitchen. She offered him a drink and they chatted about Skye.

"She thinks the world of you." Andrew told her.

"I taught her how to fire an automatic, of course she likes me." May smirked.

That was when Ellis ran in.

"Mommy, where my dinosaur?" He asked her. He was looking for his stuffed dinosaur that she had to wash because he got peanut butter on it the day before.

"He's taking a bath, he'll be done soon." May promised him. Her heart had dropped, without any warning, Andrew knew now.

Ellis pouted.

"What did I tell you about that?" May warned.

"It doesn't help." Ellis slumped away.

May sighed, stood up, and faced her ex.

Andrew was dumbstruck. A little boy who didn't look at all like May, had just called her mommy.

"Melinda..." he tried to begin, but couldn't find the words.

"Hydra killed his father and left him behind, his mother died when he was born. We couldn't find any living family." May explained quickly.

"So you just decided to keep him?" He asked her.

"He's not safe with Hydra after him, and I'm not throwing him into the foster system." May growled. She had already had to explain this to a few people.

"And you think he's safe here?"

"Look," she turned on him, "you and everyone else have asked me this. He's safe with me, I would never let anything happen, and he's been through enough. I may not be his mother but I will look after him as long as he needs it."

Andrew stepped back with his hands up. "I'm sorry, Melinda. It was just a surprise. I didn't think you wanted to have children."

"I didn't, until he decided he wanted me." May finished her drink and walked away.


	5. Chapter 5

While Andrew treated Skye, Coulson took a team to investigate a break in at a federal mental facility. It wouldn't be a big deal, except SHIELD ran the basement, which housed criminally insane people on the gifted index.

May stayed behind with Skye, Andrew, and Ellis. When she got a phone call from Coulson saying Skye's father was the man who broke out a person on the index, she didn't hesitate. Andrew and Skye were in the middle of a session and she didn't want to disrupt, she didn't even find time to get anyone to watch Ellis. Everyone was busy, so she took him with her. Andrew and Skye wouldn't be leaving the plane, if anything happened, she could lock all three of them in the cage to keep them safe.

"Where we going, Mommy?" Ellis asked as he settled into the co-pilot seat.

"Just don't touch anything." She said as she buckled him in and handed him a book to look at.

She strapped herself in and began to take off. She knew Andrew would be coming to ask her what the hell was happening.

Only a minute after take off, he burst into the cock pit.

"I was going to tell you." She said before he could speak.

"After we had already taken off?" He demanded.

"You were in session, I didn't want to interrupt. Coulson needs backup." She offered up.

She got the plane in the air and on auto pilot before grabbing Ellis to take him to the lounge to watch a movie.

"Melinda, that not talking thing you do, not okay when we were married but defintely not okay now." Andrew followed her, annoying the crap out of her.

"Not okay is Skye's lunatic father leading Coulson into a trap!" May jabbed a finger at her ex. "You and Skye, stay in the cage."

"Yeah that's not gonna happen." Skye appeared.

"This is not a negotiation, Skye." May warned.

"Coulson needs backup." The girl argued.

"And he'll have it!" May argued back.

"Look, this involves my father and for better or worse, I matter to him."

"I'm with May," Andrew chimed in, "this is an emotional powder keg you shouldn't be anywhere near."

"I can control it." Skye said.

"You don't know that." May was beyond frustrated.

"I do, because those windows aren't shattered and this plane isn't falling into a million pieces." Skye gestured around herself.

"Having contact with your father is a bad idea." Andrew said firmly, "What if you can't control it?"

"Then I'll ice myself!" Skye raised her voice. "Look, you're putting me on the index. How about we let my dad know?"

May and Andrew shared a look, Skye had a point. She didn't have to get involved too much if they were there.

Once they landed, Andrew agreed to stay with Ellis unless he was absolutely needed. May could handle it and Skye would run straight back to the plane when told.

"Mommy, don't go." Ellis fussed.

"It'll be okay. Me and Skye are just going to get Coulson and Bobbi. Don't you want me to get them?" May said gently.

Ellis nodded and walked away, but not before May could grab him and kiss his chubby cheek, making him smile.

She got into mission mode and her and Skye left the plane.

When they arrived on the football field Cal was hosting his crazy circus on, they could hear him talking about Skye. May gave Skye a sympathetic look before grabbing her arm and aiming an icer at her neck.

"You talkjng about her?" May demanded.

"No no no, what did they do to you Daisy?" Cal asked.

"We put her on the index. Now we decide, contain her or put her down."

"May!" Coulson sounded astonished.

"No I can't lose you again!" Cal was visibly shaken.

"Talk to me not her!" May told him.

"You have no idea what they really are, they raised you, brainwashed you." Cal said sadly. "But you won't kill her."

He knew they wouldn't, he knew they cared for her too, he just didn't like it. But he would use it against them.

Before anyone knew what happened, Cal was gone. A man appeared in a flash of blue and took him.

"End this now!" One of Cal's minions yelled.

The fight ensued, the enhanced criminals against Coulson, May, and Bobbi. May shoved Skye in the direction of the plane and told her to run back to it.

But Skye didn't, she his out of sight to make sure they didn't need backup. The crew her dad had put together consisted of a genius, a man who could induce catatonia with his voice, a man with enhanced strength, and a woman with razors permenantly attached to her fingers.

May took on the man with strength and Bobbi went after the woman. The man with the enhanced voice was taken care of. Coulson ran for the evil genius.

Watching all of this unfold stirred Skye's emotions, this was because of her.

The ground began to shake, Coulson was the first to look up at her. May knocked out the mobster and realized Skye hadn't left like she asked.

"Dammit Skye!" She made a run for the girl.

But Skye managed to control it, she surpressed it and thought she had a handle on herself. That was until she looked down and saw the discoloration creeping up her arms and felt the pain.

The last thing she saw before she collapsed was Coulson and May running for her as fast as they could.

When she woke up, Jemma was sitting on the bed next to her. May and Andrew stood a few feet away and asked how she felt. Jemma explained that she had almost a hundred hairline fractures up and down her arms. She wasn't suppressing her powers, she was directing them inward. Once Andrew finished explaining to her, he made his way out. He was ready to go home.

"So you're reccomending Skye be removed from active duty?" May followed him out of the bus.

"I'm recommending she leave SHIELD altogether." Andrew said. "So that boy..."

"I've heard it all, Andrew." May huffed.

"He's taken to you well. Being a mother, it looks good on you." Andrew said genuinely.

May smiled back just a little. "So there's no way we can get you to stay? Skye needs you."

"You all can get along without me. Goodbye, Melinda." He climbed into a car that took him out of the base and to his home.

Back in Coulson's office, they stared at Skye's index file on the screen and she told him Andrew's reccomendation.

"But why take her out altogether? She can get a handle on it." Coulson insisted.

"I'm not sure she can. I'm her SO, and I'm telling you, I have no idea how to handle her. Skye doesn't know herself anymore." May said sadly.

"This isn't Bahrain. We know what we're dealing with." Coulson reminded her.

May sighed and walked out. She found Ellis sitting in the hallway playing with the dinosaur he had been bothering her about.

"Were you waiting for me?" May said to get his attention.

"Yes, Mommy." He answered with a smile. "I miss you."

"I miss you too, I'm sorry I've been busy." She picked him up and began to walk with him.

"Coulson need you." The little boy pointed out.

"No, he just wanted my help." May said more to herself.

"He love you like me." Ellis said.

May carried him to the lounge where she heard that Mack was back. Coulson was going to be taking Skye to a classified location so she asked Fitz to look after the boy for just a minute. Hunter still hadn't reported in, and Bobbi wasn't around. That left Mack to answer her questions.

"Mack!" She said as she walked up the cargo hold of the bus. "You want to tell me what's going on?"

She grilled him about Hunter, if he'd seen Bobbi. The more he talked, the more she knew he wasn't telling the truth. He was up to something, all three of them were. As soon as Coulson got back, she would be having a discussion with him.

But it would have to wait. Talbot called and reported that the nano mask someone used to impersonate him and Agent May was in play. Agent 33 broke Bakshi out of a secure military prison, with the help of none other than Grant Ward.

They both agreed to stay in contact and Coulson hung up.

"Do you ever feel like you mishandled something important?" He asked May.

This didn't have to do with Ward and 33's prison break, she knew that. He was struggling with his decision concerning Skye.

"You made the right call." She told him.

Coulson sighed.

"So do you believe Mack?" He asked her.

"Nope." May answered firmly.

"Me either. He's got something up his sleeve." Coulson concurred.

They agreed that they would find out one way or another what was going on. Before long, they had a plan in motion. May put Ellis safely in the cage on the bus with Fitz, our of harm's way in case this went badly. Skye was out of the equation, which was good. This couldn't go too horribly.

Coulson allowed Mack to peek under Lola's hood, using the man's excitement to take his guard down. May watched Coulson's office closely.

Just as she suspected, Bobbi had another agenda when she reported back in and said Hunter was nowhere to be found. May still wasn't sure if Hunter was a part of this or if they took him out of the picture.

Bobbi was in Coulson's office, using her baton to get into his desk and take Fury's tool box.

"I told Coulson there was no way, I hate being wrong." May growled and aimed a gun at the woman, making herself known.

"I can explain. It's not what it looks like." Bobbi held her hands up.

"You know," May stepped forward, "the last person who betrayed me, I broke his larynx."

Bobbi considered her options for a moment and crashed through a nearby window. Her and May began to fight over possession of the tool box.

"I didn't want this." Bobbi gasped before pushing something hidden in her shirt.

It was some sort of EMP, a means for her and Mack to escape, which they did. Two rogue spies were loose on the base.

May ran to the bus and brought Fitz and Ellis back into the center of the base.

"Stay with me, I want to keep an eye on you." She told the little boy.

"What happen?" He asked.

"Just a little problem. We'll handle it." She assured him.

"I'll get to work on the electrical." Fitz said before going to fix the base.

Not long after that, it was discovered that Mack and Bobbi disabled the quinjet and the bus, leaving them with very few options.

May took Ellis to the locker room to search both of their things. Something there would be a clue.

And she found it, a gas mask hidden behind the back of Bobbi's locker.

"They're not trying to get out." May realized.

Without hesitation, she seized Ellis and ran for an opening in the wall, where they would hide and wait out whatever gas was coming.

"Playing hide and seek?" Ellis asked with a giggle.

"Yes, Ellis. And you have to be quiet or they'll find us." May shushed him.

She watched as the dendrotoxin leaked in and knocked everyone out. So Bobbi and Mack didn't want them dead, at least not yet.

Someone blew a damn hole in the wall and invaded the base. It turned out to be agents who called themselves the real SHIELD. What they had against Coulson and the operation here, she had no idea. But she followed them in the shadows to find out.

She was horrified to hear they knew about Skye and where she was hiding. There was no way in hell they would get their hands on her.

She made a run for the bus, and climbed aboard swiftly and silently, contacting Skye.

"May!" The girl answered. "What's going on? I've been trying to call but no one answers."

"Skye you need to get out of there." May warned.

"What? What's happening?" Skye was confused.

"Listen to me. There's a panel on the southwest corner of the perimeter, get to it, disable the laser grid, and run." May hastily explained.

"May, what-?"

"You can do this Skye, I believe in you. But you need to run, they're coming for you."

"Who?"

"SHIELD!"

As soon as May said that, the line was cut. Her next move was to help Coulson escape. She slipped back into the wall and took Ellis by the hand to get close to his office.

She waited for the right moment, when Gonzales was alone with Coulson with only a few agents around. She emerged from the wall and took them all out. She hated doing it with Ellis watching, but it was only an icer.

"Nice entrance." Coulson commented.

"Mommy." Ellis pouted.

"It's okay." She touched his cheek before handing Coulson a brief case.

"This should get you by for a few days." Then she opened the wall to a hidden elevator. "There's no SHIELD without you."

Coulson tried to protest but she shoved him in, trying to get him out.

"They know about Skye, Phil. Find her." She said before closing the wall again, sending him down. The panic in her voice was evident.

As soon as the door was closed, Agent Weaver walked in. She noticed the small boy hiding behind May's leg and looked up at May.

"Agent May?" She simply said.

Due to her hostile actions, May was locked up. She was separated from Ellis, which neither of them were happy about. But May held it together. She wouldn't give them the satisfaction of her reaction, they would hold it over her head.

Besides, Jemma promised to look after him.

"That boy, he keeps crying for you. Want to elaborate on that?" Gonzales asked her from the other side of the invisible barrier.

"He has no family, Hydra killed his father, and is hunting him. We just keep him safe here." May made it sound like he was only here for the time being.

"He's more than just a guest." Gonzales pointed out. He was trying to push May's buttons. "He would be better if we turned him over to the system."

"What don't you understand about Hydra wanting him?" May placed her hands on her hips.

"Hydra was after Agent Skye too, and we kept her safe. I think it best we place him in a foster home."

"He stays, he's safe here." May was struggling to keep it under control.

"I'm not so sure, I'm making this call. He leaves tomorrow."

"You will NOT take my son from me!" May stepped dangerously close to the barrier.

"So he's your son." Gonzales confirmed.

"I'm all he has and if you send him away I will hunt you down and anyone who has anything to do with it." May threatened.

"I believe you. Now let's talk about Coulson. Help us find him and we can help your boy stay put."

He couldn't be serious, using Ellis as a bargaining chip to get May to betray Coulson.

"You're going to pay for this." May promised.

"I have no doubt, but we need to find Coulson. And Skye."

That really touched a nerve with May, Coulson was already in danger, but to threaten Ellis and Skye, he was making his way higher up her shit list, right under Grant Ward.

"You won't touch her."

"Agent May, do you remember Bahrain? You of all people should know what a powered person can do." Gonzales used her most traumatic experience as a last resort.

May kept her neutral pissed off look, not giving anything away.

"Bring me my son."


	6. Chapter6

Ellis was brought to May and allowed to stay with her. She hated keeping him here but it was the only way to keep herself sane and to ensure no one would take him away. None of these people could be trusted right now.

Soon, she found herself transferred to the bus and flown to an aircraft carrier. She took her son with her, refusing to let anyone else near him, not even Fitz or Simmons.

She was escorted to a conference room and left alone, aside from Ellis who sat in a corner playing with toys and watching something on a tablet. The door clicked open and she immediately turned.

Gonzales walked in, carrying a pistol he said belonged to his father and always had a way of finding its target. Before she could speak, he pushed it down the table toward her. She wasn't stupid, but he might be.

"It's come to my attention that I'm not handling you properly. And since I've been outvoted, we're trying this a different way." He said.

He actually wanted her on the board with him and the rest of the commanding agents. He threatened her son, Coulson, and Skye, and he wanted to work with her now.

He told her they perceive Coulson as a threat, and they don't take threats lightly.

"Neither do I." She stated and aimed the gun at him. But she knew this wasn't a smart play and pushed it back to him.

"I appreciate the theatrics, but even you're not stupid enough to hand me a loaded gun." She grumbled.

He surprised her by dropping the full magazine and showing her the gun had one in the chamber.

"I just want to protect SHIELD and everything it's been founded upon. We need you to protect it with us."

May hated it but he was right, they couldn't afford to fight amongst each other. Not with Hydra out there and still not completely understanding Skye. So she agreed, however cranky it made her. She also wanted to be in the know about everything, and it couldn't hurt to be in the inner circle.

"I'm sorry I told you I would take your son, as I said before I wasn't going about it the right way." He said as he led her out of the room.

"Don't ever bring him into anything, ever again." May warned him as she gathered her son's things into his backpack and put it on him so she could take him with her. She would hold onto this grudge, she would probably never let it go.

They walked down to the control room where she found out Fitz was leaving. Simmons was willing to stay and cooperate, but her partner and best friend refused to be a part of this. But to make sure he didn't do anything foolish, they put a tail on him. The poor kid probably wouldn't see it coming, and May knew he would try to contact Coulson.

Soon, he was located. Coulson and Hunter were found at the same cabin Skye was, but she had disappeared. Bobbi had gone there with a team to collect her but Agent Calderon had tried to shoot her. Not ice, shoot. May would kill him herself if he survived what she considered to be a well deserved branch impaling his shoulder. Skye still couldn't control her power, but she stopped the bullet and took out the trees within her vicinity. Then the man who could teleport arrived and whisked her away. No one knew where she was.

To May's surprise, Mike Peterson made an appearance. Coulson and Hunter hijacked a quinjet with his help and made their escape.

"He's not supposed to be an active asset." May commented.

"Looks pretty active to me. Have you heard of Theta protocol?" Agent Weaver asked.

May had no idea what that was, but she didn't show it.

"Every director of SHIELD has their secrets." May simply answered.

"Secrets can be dangerous." Gonzales added in.

May wanted to know the truth, and to get it she would have to be in a position of power. She negotiated for charge of the base, that way she could take Ellis home and find out what was happening and what Coulson was keeping from her.

She boarded a quinjet with Bobbi and Ellis, who sat in her lap and fell asleep within minutes of takeoff.

"May, you don't know what Theta protocol is do you?" Bobbi carefully asked from the seat next to her.

May placed a hand on Ellis' little back and sighed.

"That gut punch you felt today, that's how we've felt for months." She continued.

"You're worried I don't understand your choice." May said in a neutral tone, and looked up at the woman next to her. "But that's the price of doing the right thing. No one will understand, and it hurts like hell."

The rest of the ride was quiet. Back at the base, Ellis was placed in his bed where he fell back asleep. May left the door open, when he woke up he would know where to go to look for her. She made her way to Coulson's office.

"May!" Simmons greeted her with a hug. "Thank God you're back, everyone keeps leaving."

"Simmons," May began, holding up a tablet, "are you aware you've been working on Deathlock technology?"

"Oh no, that's not right." Simmons checked the information.

"Look, Coulson left us with a mountain of lies. And I need to find out if these people are telling the truth. So work with me." May said in a quiet tone. "I know Coulson, and he doesn't just go off the grid for nothing."

She brought up a map on the big screen and explained.

"I've crossed referenced his flight history with Bobbi's intel. Every time he said he was in once place, he was somewhere else." She hated being lied to, especially by the one person she trusted most in the world.

"Were you aware that he was meeting with your ex husband? They've been consulting for a while." Simmons admitted and showed a picture of the two men.

Together they came to the conclusion that Coulson might be building a base for powered people. He was burning through money, consulting with Andrew, all the evidence pointed that way. It terrified May, she knew dealing with powered people they didn't understand was playing with fire. She knew that better than anyone.

"The only way to know for sure is for you to open that toolbox. It's that simple." May instructed the girl.

"It's not quite that simple." Simmons cautiously said as she closed the door.

"Simmons, what did you do?" May brought out her mom tone.

"I may have switched the boxes. The one we have here, it's junk." She admitted.

"Where's the real box?" May asked in an urgent tone.

"Fitz has it." Simmons said.

May rolled her eyes and told Simmons not to say anything to anyone for now. She slumped over to the couch when she was alone in the room. What was she going to do with those two?

Not long after that Ellis was awake. He cried when he saw he was alone but May could hear him and she found him going to Coulson's office to find her. He calmed down and she took him to the kitchen for something to eat.

Bobbi was already there. May put a snack in front of the boy and realized she had to tell somebody, and Bobbi was her best option.

"What I'm about to tell you, it has to stay between us for now." May said. Bobbi nodded and leaned in.

"Fitz has the real tool box, Simmons has been working on a fake to stall for time. We need to find Coulson and get answers." She explained.

"Deathlock is with him, we can tap into his feed and see where they are." Bobbi suggested.

May agreed and when Ellis was done eating, they walked to the lab together. Poor Simmons tried to play it off like she was still trying to get into the box but May stopped her and said Bobbi knows.

"It's hard to know who to trust right now." May tried to reason with the girl.

"Yes, it is." Simmons made an obvious jab at May.

"We need to get into Deathlock's feed, find Coulson, and find the box." May firmly said.

"I'll get right on it." Simmons said not so happily and walked away.

May hated this, she didn't want Simmons to feel alone and betrayed but right now they had no other option. She wanted answers and they needed to fix this.

Most of her day was spent in the office, waiting for Simmons to hack into Deathlock's eye feed.

"Mommy, you mad? Jemma mad?" Ellis asked her from where he was playing on the floor.

"No one's mad, we're just trying to find Phil and Skye." May told him. She didn't want him to know about all the tension, even though she was sure he could feel it.

"You miss them?" He asked another question.

"Yeah." May admitted. She did, everything was upside down. Skye was gone, May had no idea where she was and she was worried. Coulson was on the run, and she was scared but she was also hurt. They had known each other for so long and he kept so much from her.

That was when her phone rang. It was an unknown number but she answered it anyway.

"Hello?" She said.

"May!" It was Skye.

"Skye, where are you? Are you okay?" May felt overwhelmed.

Simmons burst in after hearing that it was Skye on the phone. Her eyes were wide but May gestured for her to stay quiet.

"I'm fine. But listen, Cal is about to be angry, like really angry. You guys need to come get him so no one gets hurt." She wasn't being very transparent.

"Slow down, what's going on?" May was even more worried now. Was she taken hostage by her father?

Skye said nothing.

"Skye?!" May demanded.

All of a sudden she heard Cal's voice, he sounded friendly. Skye talked back to him, sounding calm.

"She doesn't sound like a hostage." Simmons commented.

"More like she's playing along. She left the line open for us to track." May confirmed.

She left the office to retrieve Bobbi and told the woman what happened. Back in the office, they tracked the phone and Bobbi agreed to take Mack to pick Cal up. May had to stay put, for Ellis and because she was in charge of the base.

She paced impatiently. Two of her team members were gone, missing, possibly in danger, one left and was being tailed, and she just sent two more out. The sooner they hacked into Deathlock's feed the better.

When Simmons announced they were about to be in, she made her way over to the screen. A few seconds later and she saw something that made her blood boil.

Grant Ward stood in front of Deathlock, with Coulson next to him. They were working together, which didn't bode well for anyone, especially Coulson.

May was pissed off to say the least, but Coulson gave himself up which puzzled everyone. They picked him up with the Bus and he was locked in the cage.

May paced his office and waited for word from Bobbi, Ellis watched her from his corner. Finally, word came in about why Coulson was working with Ward and gave himself up.

Mike Peterson was taken by Hydra along with another powered person. According to him, Ward had brainwashed Bakshi into doing his bidding. So they sent the man into the belly of Hydra with Mike pretending to be his body guard. By watching Mike's feed, they managed to find out that Hydra was experimenting on powered people at a base in the arctic. This didn't bode well for anyone.

In exchange for opening Fury's tool box, Coulson would be allowed to take a small team to infiltrate the base, rescue the prisoners, and then SHIELD could blow it to hell.

Gonzalez agreed and Coulson gave the okay for Ward to land the quinjet on the bus with himself, agent 33, an injured Hunter, and Fitz on board.

May was pissed off to say the least. She left Ellis in charge of Jemma while she met Coulson in the hangar. She wasn't about to have her son anywhere near Ward.

"Welcome back." She said in a harsh tone, not in the least bit welcoming.

Ward and 33 casually stepped off the plane and her anger only grew.

"Both of you will be accompanied by guards at all times." Gonzales warned them.

"Who will shoot you without hesitation." May added and walked away with Coulson.

Back in his office, they video chat with the remainder of the counsel to discuss the plan. When it was all laid out, it was put to a vote. May ended up being the deciding factor and asked for a moment alone with Coulson.

"Do you have any idea what you did while you were gone? You kept secrets, lied to me. I was separated from Ellis, Gonzales used him to get me to work with them!" May was ready to blow on him but she kept herself in check.

"I didn't mean for any of that to happen." Coulson tried to reason with her. "Every director has secrets."

"Want to tell me what Theta protocol is?" May crossed her arms.

"No. You're not the director of SHIELD."

"Neither are you. Not anymore." May reminded him.

"If you recall, you kept a secret from me. Fury asking you to keep an eye on me?" He pointed out.

"This is PERSONAL." She spat back. "You we're consulting with Andrew behind my back." She didn't think she'd ever been so angry with him. They shared everything, and suddenly it was like he had a whole different life.

Coulson sighed. "I was going to him for counseling. After the alien writing, the madness, I needed someone I could trust."

"You lied to me. You almost got Ellis taken away from me."

"I know. And I will apoglize to you later, at length." Coulson stepped into her personal space. "Right now, I want to run this rescue mission and rain on Hydra's parade."

May stepped back, she couldn't do this right now. She could see that it stung him but she walked back into his office and confirmed her vote to go ahead with the plan.


	7. Chapter7

The last bit of feed they had from Mike was Hydra removing his eye and cutting them off. Now they had no knowledge of the inside of the base. Coulson put together his team and asked May to be on it.

"I know you don't want to leave Ellis again but he'll be fine. Bobbi can stay with him, you know she won't let anything happen to him." Coulson assures her.

The team consisted of them, FitzSimmons, and Ward. Agent 33 would be staying behind which made May nervous, but she knew Bobbi would kill and be killed for Ellis, they all would.

Ward reminded them that they did still have eyes on the inside, Bakshi was working for him, and that he was no longer Hydra and just working on his own.

They boarded the bus, discussing what to do when there was a strange sound. May and Coulson aimed their guns at Ward and he swore he didn't do anything.

"Hey guys." Skye said from the top of the stairs.

"This is great, we finally got the team back together!" Ward said happily.

Once they were in the air and the plane was on auto pilot, they gathered.

"I can't believe I'm going to say this but Ward, bring us up to speed on Bakshi." Coulson grumbled.

Ward started off, giving information until he turned around and saw all the stony looks he was getting.

"Okay, can we just acknowledge the elephant in the room?" He put his hands out, "Yeah, mistakes were made."

"By you." Fitz said.

"People were hurt." Wars went on.

"By you." Fitz said again.

"I could go on about my family and how they beat me down." Ward tried to excuse his actions.

"We all had our traumas, Ward." May chimed in. "Didn't turn any of us into psychopaths."

"We all had different ways of coping. I was yours." Ward reminded her.

"Watch yourself." Coulson said angrily.

"My point is." Ward sighed. "We all make mistakes. Coulson handed me over to my abuser, thank you by the way. Skye shot me."

"After you killed HOW many people?!" Jemma couldn't believe him.

"We were a team, a family. And you betrayed us!" Fitz almost yelled.

"I know. It's what I regret the most. Not the lying or the agents I put down, but this. Wrecking this." Ward said sadly.

After a moment, Skye spoke up.

"I'm still happy I shot you." She simply said.

"Yeah me too." Fitz agreed.

"Should have aimed for the face." Jemma said.

"Yeah." May nodded.

The plan was to fly in cloaked, even though they knew Hydra could spot them. They all loaded into the quinjet that was attached to the top of the bus, and when Hydra blew the plane, May let the jet fall and disguise it as debris, much to the discomfort of everyone on board.

Just before they hit the water, she pulled up and stopped the quick descent. They all caught their breath and flew low to land on the arctic base. Then they bundled themselves up and broke in.

The first person they ran into was Bakshi, who was meeting Ward to show them where the lab was and where missile controls were.

They split into two teams, Ward, Skye, Jemma, and Bakshi, the other team was May, Coulson, and Fitz. Fitz would be disabling the missles so SHIELD could blow the place when they were out, May and Coulson would stand guard. The rest were off to rescue Mike and Lincoln.

Once Fitz was done, May realized she couldn't find Coulson. She looked around and found him gathering intel, she was angry as hell, to the point that after she shot a Hydra agent she told Coulson he would be next if he didn't leave.

They all made their way back to the jet to fly home. Having served their purposes, Ward and Bakshi were cuffed. Ward was told by Coulson he would be put through the TAHITI protocol. As it was, he was only there because they threatened agent 33, who he knew as Carah, and he was trying to protect her. Coulson hoped there would be some good left in him still. Agent 33 would also be wiped, so she wouldn't be caused any more pain.

Once back at the base, Simmons took charge getting Mike and Lincoln stabilized. Meanwhile, May went in search of her son. She found him asleep in her room, with Bobbi reading a book on the nearby couch.

"He slept most of the time you were gone." Bobbi smiled.

May sighed in relief. She hated leaving him, but she was needed.

"Thank you Bobbi, I got it from here." May sat down on the bed as the other agent saw her way out.

"Ellis?" She said softly and rubbed the small boy's back. Part of her didn't want to wake him, but she was still a little shaken at the idea of him being sent away.

He turned over and as soon as he saw her, his eyes lit up and he was awake.

"Mommy!" He climbed into her lap.

May held him close, pressing his head to her chest. That was when she heard a knock on the door.

"I'm sorry for interrupting, but I think we should talk." Coulson said from the door.

"Coulson!" Ellis climbed down from May's lap and rushed over to reach for his second favorite person.

"Hey buddy! It's nice to see you too! But I really need to talk with your mom, I did something bad." He glanced up at May to see her expression hadn't softened even a little.

"No, mommy not mad. Mommy love you!" Ellis said love in a very drawn out way that made them both a little antsy.

"No, she is mad. And I'm okay with that. Can you give us a minute?" The boy huffed at being told to excuse himself and sat in his play corner with his back to both of them.

"I thought you'd like to know that both Ward and Agent 33 are being put through the TAHITI protocol right now. I've informed her mother that she will not remember even being captured by Hydra, let alone the brainwashing, and that she will be retiring from SHIELD with an injury which will explain her recovering from having her memory replaced. Ward won't remember anything. Jemma is modifying his memory so that he will remember me recruiting him to SHIELD and not Garrett, and then we can decide whether to make him retire or keep him here."

May simply nodded. "Keep him here and observe him. If he still has serial killer tendencies we're putting him down."

"That sounds fair. Can we talk about everything?" Coulson asked.

May stared at him with a neutral expression which he took to mean yes so he began.

"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kept anything from you. You're always at my side and you always have my back, I had no right. What I'm most sorry about is how things ended up. You helped me escape the base and in return I fled like a fugitive and I know that cost you a lot."

"It almost cost me a lot more." May gestured to Ellis.

"I know. That should never have happened. He should never be put in the middle of this, he didn't ask for it."

"No. He didn't." May said through clenched teeth.

"From now on I'm an open book with you. No secrets, you're my right hand." He promised her.

May simply nodded.

"I'll leave you two alone then." Coulson saw his way out and May sat on the bed. Things were about to change, she could feel it. Skye came back from wherever she had been taken to, Ward was about to be in their custody with memories of being a devoted SHIELD agent, and Coulson was no longer director.


	8. Chapter8

The intel Coulson recovered from the arctic base showed that Hydra had the scepter Loki used to kill Coulson and control minds. Now May saw why it was so important. Using that information and Theta protocol, SHIELD was able to help put a stop to Ultron and save the world from him. While May was relieved that Coulson's big secret wasn't dangerous, she was still a little upset.

However, Coulson admitted that even Nick Fury had a council overseeing him and his decisions to keep him in check. He proposed that they form one SHIELD with him acting as director and the other high ranking agents as his advisory.

They had what felt like five minutes of peace before Raina and the teleporter were spotted on the aircraft carrier and an alarm was set off. They were after the alien artifact in the cargo hold of the ship.

Together, Coulson and May questioned Skye, hoping that it just being the three of them would help her open up.

"I have no idea what that thing is or why they're after it." Skye insisted. "No one talked about anything like that while I was there."

"Then why did they infiltrate a military vessel to go after it?" May questioned.

"They're not bad people. Gordon and Jiaying helped me." Skye said.

"This man can teleport wherever he wants, he's clearly very dangerous." May was becoming frustrated.

"The same thing could be said about you, I know about Bahrain." Skye took a step toward May, who looked visibly shaken. "You of all people should understand why they would want to stay hidden."

In the end, it didn't matter that Skye didn't know anything. Hydra had a way of tracking Gordon and SHIELD was able to replicate the technology, and they now knew where the inhumans were located.

"This is an entire race of people with powers. I think we need to come up with a plan of attack." Gonzales suggested.

"No." Coulson said. "I'm proposing a sit down with their leader. If these people are as peaceful as Skye says, it shouldn't be a problem."

Everyone agreed and Coulson made off to talk to Skye about the proposal. Meanwhile, May went off to find her son. Now that he had adjusted better, and the inhuman situation had arisen. She had been back to work more and more. She did her best to spend time with him but most of the time he was left with Fitz and Simmons, Mack, or Bobbi. She knew she might be part of this mission, they would want as many friendly faces as possible, so she wanted to see Ellis.

On her way to him, she ran into Bobbi who walked with her discussing the current situation. On the way out, they saw a still groggy agent 33 being wheeled away to be escorted to her mother, with whom she would recover and retire from SHIELD and hopefully live a peaceful life.

"I can honestly say I hope she ends up happy." Bobbi raised her eyebrows.

"She didn't ask for any of this." May agreed.

When she found Ellis, he was in the kitchen with Simmons having some dinner.

"Mommy! Jemma made me sandwich." He proudly showed her.

"It's just peanut butter and jelly." Simmons smiled.

"Thank you, Simmons." May smiled slightly. She felt worn out.

"It's no problem. He's a lovely child." Simmons said before leaving.

"You work hard mommy?" Ellis asked between bites.

"Yes but I always miss you." May sat down next to him.

"I miss you, too. Can I sleep in your bed tonight?" He asked hopefully.

He'd had his own bed for a little while now, but sometimes he still slept with May. She considered it for a second. He was adjusting well but she didn't get enough time with him.

"Sure. If you eat your dinner and pick up your toys." May compromised.

Ellis began to wolf down his food. When he finished he was a sticky mess needing a bath. May was about to take him when Skye walked in looking gloomy, but smiled when she saw the little boy.

"Hey buddy!" Skye sounded happy for the first time in a while. "How are you?"

"SKYEEEEEE!" Ellis yelled and climbed down from his chair. Even though he was dirty, Skye hugged him. She had missed him while she was gone and hadn't gotten the chance to see him since she got back, having been looking after Lincoln.

"Ew, you're a mess." Skye pointed out.

"Yes, I was just about to bathe him." May interjected.

"I'll do it. I think Coulson is going to be looking for you." Skye looked a little awkward but May let it go.

"Okay, thank you." May walked away. She trusted Skye with Ellis, she really did, but she was still a little upset about the mention of Bahrain.

She decided to make her way to the hangar. No one would be there, she felt at peace around the jets.

And that lasted all of five minutes when Coulson found her.

"I miss my plane." Was all she could say.

"Me too. Although when you think about it, mostly bad stuff happened on it." He was trying to put her at ease.

Seeing that it didn't work, he got down to business.

"Skye's insisting she go ahead of us with Lincoln. She wants to talk to their leader before we go in. This woman she keeps talking about, Jiaying, it's her mother." He revealed.

May simply looked sideways slightly.

"I expected at least a raised eyebrow." Coulson said.

The truth was she was a bit put off. She thought of Skye as her own, having taken care of her and trained her for a while now. She knew that Skye would choose her real mother over May any day, but she wouldn't let that get out.

"May, I thought I would take this time to talk about what happened, with Skye. I don't care about what happened-"

"Yes you do! Or you wouldn't bring it up." May sighed. "That girl wasn't killed in the crossfires."

Coulson blinked in surprise.

"It was her or everyone else, and I made the hard call. I only ever told Andrew." She mentioned her ex-husband. "Back then, our boundaries were clear. I was married to him, and I worked with you. When you started carving you asked me to put you down, to put a bullet in your head. I never would have killed you, but I should have stopped you."

"I never lost control." Coulson insisted.

"Skye's living proof that you did." May said before walking away. She was in no mood to deal with this at the moment. Maybe when all this insanity was over, but not now.

The next day, Skye and Lincoln were allowed to leave the base so they could go back to Afterlife and arrange the sit down. Coulson went back to his office to see the rest of the council there, including May holding Ellis. Seeming to sense the tension in the room and being around people he saw as scary, the boy clung to her shirt and stayed quiet.

"Skye will discuss with their leader and we will move in." Coulson announced.

"There's one thing, Coulson." Gonzales said from his chair. "I will be going to this meeting. Skye's like a daughter to you, it's too personal."

Coulson sighed.

"May?" He asked what she thinks. The woman looked around the room and back at Coulson before replying.

"He's right. We need someone objective." She agreed with the other man, even if he was a thorn in their side.

"Okay. I asked you to me so I would be a fool not to take your advice." Coulson settled. "As director I'll quarterback the mission from here."

Once the office was empty, May spoke up.

"Phil..." she began.

"Go with them." He said.

"I've been away enough." She referred to Ellis who was now looking around to check that all the strangers had gone.

"I'll keep him here. You can see him any time on the monitor. Please, Skye needs to see a friendly face."

May sighed, she had seen this coming but she still wanted to stay with her son.

"Okay. But when this is all over I'm taking a break from field work again." She said before leaving the office.


	9. Chapter9

Leaving Ellis behind for what felt like the hundredth time lately was hard. He cried for her but she knew it was best that she go. She tried to think of it as one day he would be out in the world again and she needed to make sure it was safe.

As promised, he remained in Coulson's office. She piloted one of the three quinjets they took. She sighed, hoping this would go well.

When they touched down, Gordon was there waiting. Gonzales went with the man while everyone else stayed behind, waiting. Once the man was out of her line of sight, she went back to the jet to talk to Coulson who was now on the screen for the duration of the mission.

"How is he?" May asked about Ellis. Right now all she could do was wait and she could pass the time this way.

"Coulson give me shield mommy!" Ellis jumped up and proudly displayed his toy Captain America shield. May gave Coulson a blank stare and he shrugged, grinning.

At that moment, May was pulled away because Skye had arrived to bring them none other than her insane father. She said he was turned over by her mother as a peace offering.

"What happened? Where's Coulson?" Skye demanded of May.

"He's fine. We all thought it would be better to have someone more objective to meet with your mother." May replied.

"So why can't you be in there?" Skye asked.

"I told you," May looked off to the side, "we needed someone objective."

She took a deep breath before she continued.

"I hope your mother is everything you wanted her to be." May managed to get out before turning away. That was all she would allow herself in the present situation. It was too hard to stand around Skye knowing she found her real mother here and might never come home.

Back in the jet, May let Coulson know that Cal had been turned over. Simmons showed them that vials of unknown substance were found on him, but they wouldn't know what was in them until they returned to the base.

"How's Skye?" Coulson asked.

"Upset that you're not the one meeting with her mother." May said very bluntly.

"That's to be expected, but this was the right play." Coulson answered as Ellis ran around in the background pretending to knock things aside with his new toy.

They continued on conversing until Simmons ran in to tell them that gunfire had been heard and no one knew where Gonzales was. Coulson ordered them to get all SHIELD personnel out and leave.

"I want all of these birds ready to leave the second I get back. He may be a part of it make sure he's secure!" May barked as she walked out to try to fix things.

She tried to keep her cool as she searched for both Gonzales and Skye. She was fairly certain Gonzales was dead but she wasn't leaving without Skye, knowing she could be in danger here.

Her fears worsened when a quinjet soared into the air and fired on the place where the sit down was supposed to have happened. She began to panic.

She found the young woman taking down another agent.

"Skye stop!" She yelled.

"What have you done?" Skye demanded.

"That's what I'm trying to figure out. Where's Gonzales?" May tried to walk past the girl.

Skye physically stopped her. May looked at her arm and backed up.

The next thing she knew Skye was trying to fight her. She was angry, that much was apparent. May didn't swing back, she merely blocked the blows.

She finally got Skye turned around and got an arm around her neck to hold her in place.

"I don't want to hurt you!" May yelled.

"You won't." Skye said back before elbowing May to get loose and then punching her in the mouth.

May couldn't believe what was happening. She was angry and hurt at the same time, her rage took over.

She began to swing back and she finally was able to take Skye's legs out from under her and stop the fighting for a moment.

"Stop wasting time and help me fix this!" She demanded.

Skye stood back up.

"I'm sorry May, you're not welcome here." She quickly said before using her inhuman power to throw the older woman into the air and knock her out upon impact with the ground.

May woke up back in the quinjet with a killer headache. She saw Cal restrained and it all came back to her. Skye fighting her, using her powers against her mentor. May couldn't pretend it didn't sting but she was still worried about the girl.

She stood up to see Simmons on video conference with Coulson and Agent Weaver.

"Where's Skye?" She interrupted.

"How are you feeling?" Simmons asked in an annoyingly perky voice.

"I have a headache and I asked a question." May said in an irritated tone.

"As of right now we don't know anything." Coulson answered her.

"None of this would have happened if Agent Gonzales hadn't attacked." Simmons gave her input.

"You can't actually believe Robert would do that?" Weaver was stunned. She assured them that he had gone to a lot of trouble to ensure this went smoothly.

Simmons was still intent that it was his fault. Coulson and Weaver had a theory that it was too messy and had to be staged. No one knew what happened with the quinjet but firing on the meeting place would surely destroy any evidence and turn the inhumans against SHIELD.

"I can't believe Skye would do this." Coulson said after Weaver hung up.

"You didn't see her fight me." May grumbled.

"Her mother had just been shot, I can understand how she would be confused and upset." Coulson shrugged. May understood Skye was incredibly scared right now but the way she acted still hurt May unbearably.

"But why invite SHIELD only to attack?" Simmons questioned.

"I don't know." Coulson said. "But maybe their peace offering over there knows." He nodded to Cal.

Back on base, Cal was escorted inside and Coulson removed the noise-canceling headphones from over his ears.

"You wanna tell me what you're really doing here?" Coulson asked casually.

"I'm a peace offering, a gift horse. I'm also an excellent Shanghai rummy partner." Cal said in an amused tone.

Coulson rolled his eyes and replaced the headphones. The men leading him took him to the vault cell.

"I'm afraid he's more of a Trojan horse, sir." Simmons approached him. "He had these on him, and I believe he took them. I'm going to analyze them."

Finally, May stepped up. She looked utterly heartbroken to him. No one else could see past her walls, but he could. It made him want to hold her tightly but he refrained.

"Have we lost Skye?" He asked her.

"We didn't lose her, she chose." May spat out.

He could see how much this hurt her and he stepped closer with his arms slightly out, asking for permission. He couldn't take it, she needed a hug from someone right now.

She slumped her shoulders and sighed and he knew she was accepting his comfort. He wrapped his arms around her small frame and rested his cheek on her head. Sometimes he forgot how small she really was. The cavalry and everything that came with it made you think of a tiger or an angry bear.

She ran her hands up his back and relaxed into him.

"You did everything for her, she knows that. Even if she never comes back to us, she knows." Coulson said.

May pulled away and nodded slightly before brushing past him.

She made off to find her son who was asleep on the couch in Coulson's office, still clutching his shield. She didn't wake him, it seemed like that was all she did lately so she let him be.

Instead she watched him sleep. Tiny and innocent, already having seen too much and who knew what else this life had in store for him? May considered many times just putting him in the system and letting SHIELD protect him, what little there was left, but she couldn't stand the idea of being separated from him. He was the part of her she had no idea she needed, a piece of her heart running around outside of her body.

That evening, she spent time watching a movie with him, fed him dinner, and put him to bed before going to Coulson's office to have a group conference.

They all concurred that this was staged by Jiaying, to nudge the inhumans into a war with SHIELD and to trick Skye.

May was beyond angry. At first she was happy for Skye but heartbroken at the idea of losing her to her real parents, but now she was angry. She was being put through all of this hurt for an act, an excuse for her mother to instigate a war. And what would happen if Skye didn't go along with this? Would she be in danger? Would a mother really harm her own daughter that she spent decades searching for? At this point, May didn't know. But she had to get her out alive.

They knew the inhumans might go after the cargo on the ship, they already had once before. May wasn't about to let that happen, it was very likely they needed it as a weapon.

"Simmons." She said sharply as she entered the lab.

"What's going on?" She looked at May and down at Ellis who was pouting.

"I need you and Fitz to keep Ellis for me. I'm going to the aircraft carrier, keep him safe, whatever you have to do. We don't know what's going to happen." May instructed.

"Are you certain about this?" Simmons asked.

"Yes, I've already told him he is to listen to you until I get back." May leaned down to get on her son's level, her tone and mood instantly changing to help keep the toddler calm.

"I'm going to have to go away for a little while. There's a problem and I'm going to get Skye back. I promise when this is over, I'll stay here with you for a long time. But I need to handle this first. Okay?" She asked as Ellis sniffled a little.

"Okay. Love you mommy." Ellis looked down.

"I love you, too." May cupped his cheek, lifting his face back up so she could kiss him. Then she picked him up and held him a moment before handing him over to Simmons.


	10. Chapter10

May left for the aircraft carrier, knowing very well that the ship may be in danger of being attacked by the inhumans. They had a man who could teleport anywhere and had already been on board once.

FitzSimmons were left in charge of Ellis and it was Coulson's job to pry information out of Cal to prevent anything from happening. But the man wouldn't budge.

Coulson tried many tactics, he froze the vault cell, then heated it up like an oven. Cal asked for a glass of water and Coulson said he would give him one in exchange for telling them exactly what Jiaying had planned.

Simmons examined the vials that were found on him and made quite the surprising discovery. It was an ill-conceived attempt at super strength, a concoction that included steroids, gorillas testosterone, and even a drop of peppermint.

Coulson's theory was that Jiaying was manipulating Cal and using his devotion to her and their daughter to use him to destroy SHIELD from the inside out.

"You're here to take out some agents." Coulson said to Cal in one of their interrogation sessions.

"No, I'm here to take out as many as I can." Cal said with his insanely sinister grin.

Coulson expressed his concern to FitzSimmons who concurred. They promptly cleared the base but still kept Ellis with them. May would have their heads if they handed him off to someone she didn't know.

In one last attempt, Coulson went in for an intense interrogation. He took a page from Jiayings book and used Skye to work up Cal's emotions. The only problem was in the middle of him yelling, his heart stopped.

He was wheeled up to medical where Coulson ordered Simmons to try to save him.

"But sir I thought you wanted him dead?" Fitz asked.

"He's Skye's father, we have to try." Coulson grumbled.

Simmons asked for an adrenaline injection which Fitz handed to her, and jammed it straight into his neck. His body began to convulse and he rolled straight off the bed.

Simmons backed up some and clutched Ellis who had been sitting in a chair watching the entire thing.

When Cal stood up he was absolutely terrifying. The injection seemed to be what was needed to make his concoction work.

"You were looking for a monster? Hm, that's what I was missing." Cal casually threw the syringe to the side.

"Run." Coulson said to FitzSimmons.

"But sir-" Simmons tried to say.

"Get our of here! Get Ellis to safety!" Coulson ordered, cutting her off.

Fitz grabbed Simmons who was still holding the little boy and dragged her with him. Behind them, they could hear crashing from Cal trying to hurt Coulson.

"What's going on?" Grant Ward stepped clumsily into the hallway. In their sweep, they forgot about him.

"Go back to your bed, we have it under control." Fitz said a little harshly.

There was a crash and Cal appeared, laughing like a maniac.

Ward was looking a little foolish in his hospital gown but he still moved around to stand in front of FitzSimmons and the terrified little boy.

"Get that kid somewhere safe." He ordered them.

"You're still recovering we can't just leave you here." Simmons argued.

"Just go!" Ward practically shoved her.

Stunned but grateful, the duo ran. Fitz told Simmons to take Ellis down to the vault cell and lock them in, he had a plan and just needed to find Coulson.

Meanwhile, May was discussing the ship's schematics with Mack when they heard strange voices in the hall.

They peeked out the door and saw a very large man carrying an unconscious Skye over his shoulders like a rag doll.

May felt unbelievable rage pool in her chest and clenched her fist, taking a single step forward to rip the man's head off when an arm the size of her whole leg held her back.

"We have the element of surprise." Mack pulled her into the room with him.

Once the inhumans were gone, they snuck out and to the armory. Armed and ready, they emerged and pulled the nearest alarm, setting the entire ship on alert.

The first inhuman they encountered could make copies of herself. Great.

They managed to fend off the duplicates and get to Skye. Mack used an axe to break her out of her cell.

"You have no idea how glad I am to see you!" The girl hugged Mack.

Letting go of him, she spotted May.

"I'm sorry, I didn't know." She felt the guilt wash over her like a tidal wave.

"You didn't, but right now we need to stop Jiaying." May said, implying they would talk about it later.

Skye nodded and Mack said they needed her skills.

"They put these inhibitors on me, I can't use my powers." Skye showed them things wrapped around her arms.

"I'm not talking about those skills. I hear you have a history of hacking into SHIELD." Mack pulled out a computer they had brought with them.

The communications were shorted, probably by Lincoln, but Skye managed to send out a distress signal that couldn't be shut off without the proper code.

Skye managed to send out the beacon and hack into the cameras in the control room where they knew Jiaying would be. To their horror, when Lincoln announced what he found out, Jiaying wanted to expand it and invite all of SHIELD there. All of the agents refused, that when Jiaying had a handful of them placed in a room and had an inhuman toss a teragen crystal in, turning them all to stone and threatening more if they didn't expand the beacon.

"We need to shut it down." Skye said without tearing her eyes from the screen.

Her, May, and Mack snuck through the hallways carefully. May had a gun aimed and ready for anyone they might encounter.

They heard footsteps coming closer, May prepared to shoot while Skye and Mack prepared for a fight.

Suddenly, Bobbi and Hunter came around the corner, Bobbi with batons raised and Hunter with a gun.

"Jesus Christ!" Hunter yelled and Mack hushed him.

"Where the hell have you been?" May demanded.

"Biding our time but we overheard the psychopath's plan to take out all of SHIELD when they get here." Hunter explained.

"So you two against a swarm of deadly inhumans?" May asked in an irritated tone.

"Fight to the last man standing." Bobbi shrugged.

The five of them made their way to where Skye had hard wired the signal, where May, Hunter, and Bobbi told her to get to work while they stood guard and Mack went to find a power saw in case she couldn't.

Skye scrambled to fix it when she heard a voice.

"How did you get out?" Lincoln asked.

"Lincoln..." Skye said.

"Don't bother." And he lit up his hands with electricity.

The others attacked and told her to keep working, but they never touched him. He just electrocuted them all until they were down.

"Trying to call out to your SHIELD friends?" He approached Skye.

"Lincoln listen to me, Jiaying's plan is murder. She killed Gonzales to make it look like SHIELD did it and then shot herself!" Skye tried to reason with him.

"Do you even hear yourself? Do you KNOW how crazy that sounds?" Lincoln yelled.

"She killed unarmed agents! Why do you think she wants to invite SHIELD here? It's not to hug it out, she wants to execute them." Skye pleaded with him.

She saw the realization on his face, he looked devastated.

"Please, tell me where the crystals are. We can end this." Skye said gently.

"They're in the fan room, Jiaying wants to release them to-" Lincoln started but he was hit over the head.

Mack returned with the saw he was looking for and had struck him.

"I was getting through to him!" Skye yelled.

"I'm in a crack headache first ask questions later kind of mood." Mack shrugged and the two of them began helping the others up as they recovered from being electrocuted.

"The crystals are in the fan room." Skye informed him.

"That room leads to vents all over the ship. She's going to release the mist and kill everyone." Mack said. "I'm going to guard it."

"We're coming with you." Hunter insisted. Mack nodded and they all took off to the fan room while May and Skye made their way to the control room to try to stop Jiaying.

Meanwhile, back at the base, Cal had calmed down. Ellis took a while to stop crying after the incident, but he finally fell asleep and was able to be put down on the couch in Coulson's office.

"Sorry Phil, this looks expensive." Cal said as he looked at all the damage he had inflicted.

"We have a tab running." Coulson responded.

"I really didn't mean to scare the little guy. Oh and sorry about your friend over there." Cal nodded to Ward who was recovering in a bed after being knocked out.

"I wouldn't lose sleep over it." Fitz mumbled from a corner.

"Fitz." Simmons scolded him.

Fitz glanced up before following Coulson to his office.

"Sir I think we have a way to disrupt the teleporters ability." He said.

"You mean trap him?" Coulson said hopefully.

"Yes we just need to get him in a room and get set up." Fitz explained.

"Great. Go get prepped." Coulson instructed him as he got himself ready to help take the ship back.

He walked back to medical to see Simmons checking over Cal still.

"Is he stable enough to go on the mission with us?"

"What?" FitzSimmons said at the same time.

"He's an asset. A little out of control but we may need some of that." Coulson shrugged. "We've got quinjet a flying in from all over the world, once they land we go. Simmons, you will stay here with Ellis, Ward, and an armed guard just to be safe."

"Right. Cal is stable. Just keep me up to date on everything as best you can." Simmons asked.

Skye hadn't been able to shut the beacon down, but she was able to alter its pattern to try to warn everyone to stay away. She just had to hope it would work.

With the others off to guard the crystals, her and May went to take back the control room.

When they arrived, they found Jiaying about to send another case of crystals to who knew where.

"Mom stop!" Skye yelled.

"There is no stopping this now. They won't stop! They won't stop until we're all hunted and killed." Jiaying insisted, referring to SHIELD.

"I can't let you leave with those crystals." Skye said.

"You don't have a choice." Jiaying simply said and left with a few other inhumans.

May and Skye tried to go after her but another inhuman stood in their way and duplicated herself.

The fight ensued, May and Skye versus a constant onslaught of this woman who was trained to fight as well. It felt never ending until finally Lincol charged in and used his powers to knock the girls out.

"Maybe this will help." He said as he zapped off the cuffs that were inhibiting Skye's powers.

"Thanks." She said before she hopped over the knocked out duplicates to go after her mother.

"Skye! You can't hesitate." May warned the young woman.

"I won't." Skye said with determination in her voice before running away.

May and Lincol continued to fight, determined to take back control of the ship.

"They'll keep coming unless we take out the source!" Lincoln said as he knocked another one out.

"Got her!" May raised a gun to the woman standing on a platform.

"We're not bad, we're misled." Lincoln said as he nudged the gun down. Then he grabbed the poles to the platform and surged electricity up to knock the inhuman girl out.

May sighed and wiped the blood from her lip. The control room was theirs, they just had to hope Skye could stop her mother and the others could handle the crystals.

"May." Coulson said from a nearby doorway.

"What are you doing here? Skye changed the signal to turn you away." May marched over to him. "Where's Ellis?"

"He's safe with Simmons." Coulson assured her, placing a hand on her arm.

May looked over his shoulder and saw Cal smiling gleefully and waving.

"What is he doing here? What happened?!" May was concerned.

"We'll talk about it later. Hold things down here." He said before moving on.

May was very frustrated at the lack of information at the moment but she knew she needed to stay where she was.

It seemed to last forever, but it was finally all over. Cal, of all people, stopped Jiaying. The woman had tried to kill Skye but hadn't succeeded. If she weren't already dead, May might have murdered her herself.

To add to the horrors of the day, Coulson's arm had been chopped off.

"Phil!" She screamed when she saw his arm wrapped in a bloody towel.

"It's okay, Mack did it to save me." He managed to say.

May and Skye took charge helping him to the jet and getting him comfortable so he could get home. May flew them back as fast as she could so he could get help and so she could see Ellis alive and safe. She had a bad feeling Cal had caused a little damage.

She was right. She got back to the base and it was a wreck.

"Oh yeah, Cal kind of went into a hulk rage." Coulson tried to lighten the situation.

"He WHAT?" May was stunned. "Where was my son?"

"Simmons took him to the vault cell. You can thank Ward for that one." Coulson said.

"What?" May said in a low and angry tone.

"He held off Cal so she could get away with him. Impressive considering his current state." Coulson explained.

Before she could lay into him any more, he was wheeled to medical to have his arm fixed up.

Skye stepped up next to her and sighed.

"How are you doing?" May asked her.

"Do you really need to ask?" Skye grumbled.

May turned to face the young woman who still had tear streaks on her face.

"None of it was your fault." May told her firmly.

"Really? MY parents and you think it's not my fault? I'm the one who sought them out." Skye argued.

"Everything your mother did was her choice, she did ALL of this." May pointed out.

"My lifelong search ends with a mass murderer and a lunatic." Skye choked.

May could see the breakdown coming on and she pulled the young woman in. Skye immediately gave in, she clutched May tightly and sobbed.

"It's okay. Come on." May kept an arm around her shoulder, practically holding her up and Skye leaned on her and kept her face on her shoulder, soaking her sleep.

They walked back to Skye's bunk and May opened the door and plopped the girl on her bed.

"Don't you need to go find Ellis?" Skye managed to say.

"He can wait a little longer." Maybsaid softly. She sat on the bed next to Skye and didn't say a word, just waited for the young woman to finish getting her grievances out. When she was finally quiet, May urged her to lay down and wrapped her in her blanket. She assured Skye she would be back to check on her. It was finally time to see her son.

She was off to find Bobbi who said she would sit with him, knowing May needed to handle Skye. In her search, she passed medical. Phil was still in surgery but Ward was sitting up in a hospital bed with various cuts and bruises, the result of Cal lashing out.

She still wasn't fond of him, but he was different now. She was waiting to see how this would play out. Right now, he didn't know her, he only knew her name and the rumors surrounding her. Coulson had erased a lot and the last thing he remembered was his mission right before he was assigned to the BUS and of course he had no memory of being in Hydra or their infiltration of SHIELD. They were debating on telling him about that.

"I hear I have you to thank for my son getting to safety." May said in a neutral tone as she approached his bed.

He looked up from the book he was reading.

"The kid is yours?" He looked at her strangely.

"The cavalry has a soul." May rolled her eyes.

"No it's just, he doesn't look like-" Ward stuttered a little, nervous.

"His real parents are dead." May said simply.

"Oh." Ward looked down.

"Thank you." May said before walking away.

"You're welcome. A lot of people seem wary about me, and I know I lost a lot of time in the accident but whatever I did to you or anyone else, I'm sorry." Ward called.

May had stopped but she didn't look back, she clenched her fists for a second and kept walking.

She found Bobbi in the lounge with Ellis.

"I want mommy." He whined, sitting next to her.

"She'll be here soon. Please don't cry." Bobbi ran a hand over his back to try to soothe him.

May could hear the pain in his little sobs, he missed her. When he first got here he was at her side constantly, he had become accustomed to it. And now that all of this had happened she had been forced to stop being with him so much and it put a strain on him.

She stepped through the door and he noticed her right away.

"Mommy!" He yelled excitedly before bounding over and hugging her legs.

"Hi baby, I missed you." May reached down and picked him up. He immediately latch on to her, wrapping his arms and legs around her body.

"You stay with me now." He said into her neck.

"Yes, mommy's going to stay for a while." She told him.

After she got him into bed and checked on Skye one last time, she went to Coulson's office.

"May I speak with you?" She asked him.

"What's going on?" Coulson turned around. She saw his arm in a sling and the panic hit her all over again. Images of him weak and with blood on his shirt flashed through her mind. She knew he was fine now but she felt sheer terror when she first saw him on the carrier after Mack took his arm off to save him from turning to stone.

"I'm taking some time off." May declared.

Coulson raised his eyebrows.

"I'm taking Ellis to my mom's for a while, maybe my dad's too. We should be safe there."

"I can't say I'm surprised. It's been hard on both of you, what's happened lately." Coulson said.

"He just needs time to be a kid, and I need time to actually feel like his mother and-"

"And an actual human again?" Coulson smiled a little. "Just do me a favor and keep in contact. Call me, email, whatever."

"I will." May smiled back at him fondly. It was nice that he wanted to still hear from her while she would be gone.

The next morning she packed her and Ellis' bags to leave. Coulson told her that Cal was being put through the TAHITI protocol so he could go out into the world and live a life without being a danger to anyone. She was certain Skye would be relieved to hear that, considering she just lost her mother the way she did. May couldn't imagine the things she'd seen.

On her way out she and Ellis stopped to talk to Skye.

"I hear you're going away for a while." Skye said from her seat on her bed.

"We'll be back. I just need some time, we both do." May referred to the little boy sitting next to Skye hugging her. He knew where they were going.

"Can you call me from time to time?" Skye shyly asked.

"Absolutely." May smiled.

"I'm going to miss you, buddy." Skye poked Ellis in the stomach.

"You come too! Mommy, Skye come too!" Ellis declared.

May's mouth opened slightly but she didn't know what to say.

"I'll see you the second you get back. Besides, your mommy can call me and you can see me on the phone." Skye assured him.

Skye stood up and walked over to May to hug her.

"I'm going to miss you." She said.

"I'll miss you too. Bye, Skye." May squeezed the girl.

"Actually," she pulled away, "it's going to be Daisy now."

May smiled, that was the name her parents had given her, when they were good people, before they lost themselves to Hydra.


End file.
